


Late Afternoons

by grandmelon



Series: MakoHaru AU Week [2]
Category: Free!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Never Met, Crushes, Fluff, M/M, MakoHaruAuWeek
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-03
Updated: 2015-09-03
Packaged: 2018-04-18 16:45:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4713125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grandmelon/pseuds/grandmelon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Day 3: Café/Coffee shop</p>
<p>Late afternoons are spent in a small little café between schools, talking to a recent stranger and wondering just how far Makoto wants to take things.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Late Afternoons

“Nanase-kun, you’re here again,” Makoto said with a bright smile as he walked over to the other. He barely got a glance as he walked over to the booth and placed his bags down across from him. “Is it alright if I sit here?”

 

The other man nodded, dark black bangs falling into his eyes. They grew out quite quick, Makoto noticed. He smiled at his new friend, acquaintance? Once more before going back to the line and waiting to get his coffee. Nanase Haruka was someone who frequented the small coffee shop that sat between the two biggest schools in the city. It was by happenstance that he met the other, one extra crowded day when Makoto had to make a choice between going home in the rain or try to wait it out.

 

Matsuoka Rin, one of the employees of his favorite shop and a fast friend through their frequent meetings on campus, had forced him to infringe on the other’s personal space. It was awkward at first, but in a way he was grateful to Rin, since meeting Haruka was one of the more interesting aspects of his life as of late.

 

Haruka was a swimmer in high school, went to the same school with Rin and everything, but upon college he dropped it for the culinary arts. Rin attended the same school as Makoto, but the campuses in cities were so on top of each other, he’s sure that the two of them chose those school’s to stay close. Why else?

 

It was quite obvious they were very good friends, and Makoto would be lying to himself if he wasn’t a little jealous. It’s not that he didn’t like his own friends, but there was a certain aura about Haruka. Was it an aura? Maybe it was just a feeling he got. Seeing him sitting there in the corner booth just made Makoto feel something, something warm and cold at the same time. There was a heat in his face and a warmth in his heart, but a cold and tight grip on his throat and he couldn’t even begin to explain what it meant.

 

After he got his coffee he returned to the table and put away his thoughts. Haruka was drawing, something he’d do only from time to time, but he seemed to have an incredible talent for it. He only allowed himself a peak before politely returning to his own musings, pulling out his phone and answering the late texts he had gotten from his siblings. It was their first cellphones with texting and they would not stop writing him, though he did find it cute.

 

“The twins?” Haruka asked and Makoto looked up and smiled at him. He turned his phone over so he could see the small pixelated image of the two of them with a fat white cat between them.

 

“They’ve been feeding the stray cat a little too much,” Makoto commented, ignoring the way his heart stuttered when Haruka wrapped his fingers around Makoto’s to hold the phone steady. “I can’t believe how big she’s gotten.”  


Haruka just made a noise and released his hand, leaning back into his own space. Makoto pulled back his cellphone and felt the tingling prickles of goosebumps running down his arms. He might have lied a little bit before, he knew what this feeling meant, but he had no right to claim it as such. Haruka was just a person he enjoyed spending time with, he tried his best not to think any further than that.

 

They fell into silence, a comfortable one as Makoto picked out his planner from his backpack and scratched off the things he had successfully done before he had gotten to the coffee shop that afternoon. He also wrote down a few things he remembered, like to make sure to mail his parents and the twins something for the upcoming holiday, restock on lined paper and erasers, not to forget to go shopping for food before tomorrow.

 

“Are you free next week?”

 

Makoto blinked, three times, before he looked up at Haruka and saw that his sketchbook was put away and his backpack packed. He was getting ready to leave.

 

“Um, depends on the day I guess,” Makoto answered. They had never once planned these meetings, so it was a little confusing and very new. After Makoto started to take notice of Haru he realized the other was almost there nearly every day, just like him, though some days Makoto couldn’t stay while other’s he had time to relax.

 

“Saturday,” Haruka said and Makoto nodded, a smile brightening up his face. Belatedly he realized he should have said something instead of just nodding, but then Haruka grabbed his hand and all thoughts left him. He flipped his hand over and placed a folded piece of paper in it, curling Makoto’s fingers around it, before he looked him in the eye once more.

 

Makoto’s skin was on fire.

 

“Saturday at ten, if you’re not busy, we could go to the pool,” Haruka mumbled, turning his face towards the door. “Text me if you can make it.”

 

And with that he left.

 

Makoto stared dumbfounded at the door before looking at the paper in his hands. He carefully unfolded it and saw in perfect handwriting Haruka’s number and a small note underneath. His heart sounded like a wild drum beat in his ears.

 

_You can call me Haru_


End file.
